Following in his father’s footsteps, Jimmy Lee Stamps became a professional pilot and embarked upon a career that would take him around the globe and back. On a short break from his current position in Thailand, Stamps sat down to talk about flying and the city he called home for many years.

Stamps, 42, has been around airplanes his entire life. His father, Jim, was a commercial airline captain for 38 years, flying both domestically and internationally before retiring from Northwest Airlines. Pictures adorning the walls of his parents’ home in London show a young Stamps perched in an airplane cockpit.

His father wasn’t the only airborne member of the family. Stamps’ mother, Paula, had a career as a flight attendant.

Despite this, Stamps’ first aspiration wasn’t to fly, but instead to have a career as a professional athlete.

“Sports was my dream,” he said. “That’s what I really wanted to do. That was my ultimate goal, and unfortunately I had a couple of injuries that were going to guide me another direction.”

When injuries made an athletic career unlikely, he turned to a passion that had been a part of his life for as long as he could remember.

On his 16th birthday, Stamps took his first solo flight at the Russellville Regional Airport, with his football coach and teammates from Russellville High School (RHS) looking on.

To this day, Russellville is a place that holds many special memories for Stamps, who is an alum of both RHS and Arkansas Tech University. His father operated a flight school here for several years, and Stamps himself flew out of Russellville for several years in his early days as an airline captain.

His career as an international pilot grew and developed over the years, and Stamps has flown to nearly every place imaginable, escorting athletes, rock stars, political figures and even royalty to their destinations. Passengers have included a sheik, a Middle Eastern prince and various foreign presidents and prime ministers. Although he has not piloted Air Force One, Stamps has flown American presidents past and future.

“I was actually flying President (Bill) Clinton when he was governor, when he announced that he was running for president,” Jimmy recalled. “And he announced on our airplane in Russellville, which I thought was a pretty cool thing because I heard first-hand that he was running for president, and he became president. A boy from Arkansas really did well.”

Although he has flown to some pretty spectacular places with some pretty impressive people, Stamps might tell you the best part of his travels was meeting his wife in Palau, an island country in the Pacific near the Phillipines. They have been married 20 years and have two sons.

Currently, Stamps is working at a position in Bangkok, Thailand. He has been there for a year, working for a businessman both as a captain and as an instructor, teaching other pilots in the fleet. Although his wife has been with him in Thailand, his sons have been staying with his parents. The eldest of the two attends Arkansas Tech, and the younger son will attend RHS in the fall.

Although working as an international pilot may seem like a charmed life, Stamps noted it has its challenges as well. The hardest part of his job, he said, is the long periods of time away from his family. Beyond that, he said the biggest struggle is navigating the different languages and cultures encountered on a daily basis.

“It’s exciting, but also difficult. ... You’re going from one culture to another culture in minutes.”